Russia's Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin

MOSCOW, February 11 /TASS/. Austria has agreed to allow a Russian State Duma delegation to enter Austria to attend the February session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Russian deputy Nikolai Kovalev, the Assembly’s Special Representative for Fighting Terrorism, told journalists on Thursday.

"A consent for the entry of all the members [of the delegation], including those under the [EU] sanctions, has been received. We will not let Helsinki to repeat," Kovalev said adding Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin would head the delegation and determine its final size and structure.

Naryshkin told OSCE PA Speaker Ilkka Kanerva at one of the previous meetings that he intended to participate in the OSCE PA winter session.

The Russian delegation refused to attend the OSCE PA summer session in Helsinki in July 2015 in protest against the Finnish authorities’ decision to deny entry to deputies included in the EU sanctions list, primarily Russian State Duma Speaker Sergei Naryshkin.